Guy de Charnacé


Ernest Charles Guy de Girard, count then marquis de Charnacé was a French writer, journalist, agronomist and musicologist. In Anjou, he was called the "hero of Bois-Montbourcher".

Biography

Originally from a family in Anjou, his father Charles-Guy was a senior officer of the Royal Guard who resigned during the July Revolution. Guy de Charnacé studied at the college of Vendôme. In 1843, he left for Dresden. He took a taste for music and attended the premieres of the first lyrical works by Richard Wagner who he did not cease fighting as a musician and a poet.
On 8 May 1849, he married in Paris Claire d'Agoult, daughter of Marie d'Agoult, in literature Daniel Stern, of whom he had become a regular at the literary salon after meeting Honoré de Balzac in Dresden in countess Hanska's salon. For eight years he was an inspector of the Chemins de Fer du Nord. In 1857 he entered journalism and gave a large number of articles on agronomy and zootechnics in the Journal de l'Agriculture and in La Presse. A pupil of Émile Baudement, he was a specialist in agricultural issues and the rural economy. He was decorated with the Legion of Honour on 13 August 1864. He was one of the first five founders of the "Société des agriculteurs de France".
He wrote many literary headings and joined Émile de Girardin at La Liberté newspaper for the musical and literary critics. It was at this time that his duel took place with Gaston de Galliffet, then a colonel. In 1868–1869 he published Portraits de femmes. After the War of 1870-71, he returned to the Bien Public, created by friends of Adolphe Thiers, where he wrote for four years musical and literary criticism.
He came to live at the castle of Bois-Monbourcher in Anjou at Chambellay from 1880 to the death of his mother in 1899. There he wrote his various novels. including Le Baron Vampire, an antisemitic publication. He took charge of the literary magazine La Revue angevine.
His son, Daniel de Charnacé, a former naval officer, then a farmer and a breeder, settled at the Bois-Montbourcher in 1876, with his grandfather, the Marquis Ernest de Charnacé, who had just completed the restoration of the castle and succeeded him as mayor of Chambellay from 1884 to 1942, thus holding the record of longevity to this municipal function.
His name was given to a steeple chase competition.

Writings

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